spy, ain't we, mates? We all
know what happened down there in the swamp, the time that Nick Carter
got among us, and carried away Black Madge almost before our eyes, and
we none the wiser for it. We know how Nick Carter set the cottage afire
after drugging Madge, and how then he fixed up a dummy in one of the
windows, so that we would think that she was burning up. We know that,
don't we, mates?

"And don't we know that there were four men who came to our camp in the
swamp at the same time, and who came together? Wasn't one of that four
Nick Carter himself? And were not two others of that same four Nick
Carter's assistants? And who was the fourth one of that four? Why, it
was that cove there, tied to the stake, and waiting for you to hang him.

"Would he have been in that sort of company if he hadn't been made out
of the same kind of cloth? Didn't he come there with that other outfit?
Didn't we prove--that is, didn't Madge prove that one of the four was
Nick Carter; that another of the four was his assistant, who is called
Chick? And that still another of the four was another assistant, who is
called Ten-Ichi?

"And don't you know that Nick Carter has got still another assistant,
and that his other assistant is named Patsy? Haven't you heard of that?
It is true. And so is this fellow's name Pat--or Patsy. It is all the
same.

"Now, again, didn't they come here together? Didn't Handsome find them
camping in the woods, waiting for a chance to get to our camp, and
didn't this fellow tell him the first one of the bunch that he was
looking for Hobo Harry, the Beggar King--and ain't Hobo Harry and Black
Madge one and the same? I tell you, there ain't any doubt that the man
is a spy, and that he ought to be hanged.

"Now, do you guns remember what happened the night of the fire, the time
when Nick Carter got away with Madge, and took her to jail? I'll remind
you of it. Don't you remember that when we found the other two out, they
were sent to the quicksand pit? I was one of those who helped to throw
them into the quicksand pit. Did you ever hear of anybody's getting out
of that pit alive? I never did until that incident; but I have found out
since that both those assistants, Chick and Ten-Ichi, are alive and
kicking, down in New York, this very day.

"Well, who got 'em out of that quicksand pit, then? Why, this fellow!
That is where he was, and what he was doing while we were fighting the
fire, and don't you forget it!